


Years Gone By

by Missy



Category: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln | The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Character Death, Character Study, Dancing Sickness, Fairy Tale Retellings, Foreboding Atmosphere, Gen, Ghost Town, Historical, Horror, Yuletide Madness, Yuletide Treat, enchanted objects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 09:59:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16574324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: A hundred years have gone by.   The town is silent now, except for the whistle of the wind.Music is forbidden.  It has been since that day.





	Years Gone By

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_alchemist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_alchemist/gifts).



Once there was a beautiful town on the banks of the Weser. It was filled with beautiful children who spent their days laughing and singing. But the town had one problem: it was infested with rats.

The men of the town searched far and wide for away to get rid of the vermin, but nothing they did worked. They would argue for years afterward about what happened. Some said that the man came out of the Weser itself with his bright red tricorn hat and sharp, sparkling green eyes. Others insisted that he sprang from the dirt like an ant in his red cloak. The only memory they shared was the man appearing at the Happy Leaper and telling them all he’d get rid of the rats. 

For a price.

**** 

No one had faith in the idea of him actually succeeding. They were beyond skeptical about the notion of them even getting close to having a ratless town. So the people gathered and watched as he lifted his flute to his lips.

The music he played was infectious. It forced the people’s feet to moving along. Laughing, they danced though they didn’t want to.

And so did the rats, who ran from the town, bodies tumbling and scampering over one another to get away from the piper and his magical tune.

His playing lasted no more than an hour or two. Then there was perfect, almost holy silence.

“I expect thirty silver tomorrow,” he said, and bowed as he walked away.

 

*** 

There was much haggling over the money. Though they threatened not to pay him, the Piper returned to the town and waited, patiently, for his due.

Eventually, the mayor confronted him; the town had spent all of its money on the poison it had dumped into its walls and now had to concentrate on saving money for the harvest. The Piper only smiled.

“I am a man of fairness, Mein Herr.”

He offered to play for them all one more time, and the town gathered around the communal hearth to celebrate the lack of rats in the town and share a meal. Among them, the piper smiled and he took his sup As a gesture of friendship, he waited until dinner was done.

Later, some say it was a disease; something in the water, something in the food. Some say it was the spirit of the song running through their skin. Some would say it was the devil, punishing them for failing to meet God’s expectations.

Whatever it was, one by one, they got up to dance. 

And dance they did, as the moonlight became the sunlight, and the clear sunshine became the foggy rain. One by one, the children dropped, stricken, and then continued to move even as they were carried off crying by their desperate mothers. One by one, they dropped or crawled, but for a full week he didn’t stop playing until all of their young lay, dead or dying, in the town square.

When it was over, he surveyed his handiwork, tucked the pipes into his pocket and walked away.

Some said the earth swallowed him once more. Others said he dissolved into water and soaked into the ground. But none had the strength to chase him, and afterwards there was no means they could employ to follow him.

*** 

A hundred years have gone by. The town is silent now, except for the whistle of the wind through windows left open during the celebration. The few who survived that day wait out the last of their years in anger, wishing they’d said or done something to stop the piper’s magic tune.

But his music remains in their minds. As it might. All other music is forbidden in the limits of their silent little town. 

As it has been since that day.


End file.
